It’s the impact that counts

There are several reasons why clients take lunches and small gifts for granted. Many clients view these gestures as their due for the revenue advisors generate from their business. In some cases, having someone buy them lunch or taking them golfing is a routine event and they don’t pay particular attention to one more lunch or another round of golf.

Fortunately, some advisors have found a way to make the activities they use to recognize and thank clients stand out. Those advisors offer guidance on how you can get a bigger return from client-appreciation efforts.

The following are keys to making your appreciation activity stand out:

– Tap into emotional high points

The first key is to tap into events that are surrounded by positive emotions. Some advisors pay special attention when clients have children, get married or see the arrival of grandchildren.

Some advisors celebrate when clients get a big promotion or when clients’ children or grandchildren graduate from university or get that first big job. Other advisors recognize special birthdays – 50, 60 and 65 get particular attention. And still other advisors put special focus in recognizing the day that clients retire.

These are all memorable events for clients that create a wellspring of positive emotions. By attaching yourself to these moments, you tap into the goodwill and positive client memories that arise from these events.

One advisor has found a special way to recognize the birth of his clients’ grandkids. This advisor has his assistant contact the local paper to get a high-quality proof of the birth announcement. His assistant then has the announcement enlarged at a print shop, placed in a silver-plated frame (purchased in quantity online at a discounted price) and delivered to the client. The total cost is less than $75 – a trivial investment considering the goodwill that this small gift generates. This advisor has told me that he regularly gets effusive thanks for these gifts and, when he visits clients in their homes, he often sees those framed birth announcements displayed on a shelf in the living room.

Another advisor takes advantage of the goodwill around weddings. When clients tell him that their son or daughter is getting married, the advisor asks for a copy of a picture of the couple. Then, his assistant orders special personalized postage stamps from Canada Post – featuring that photo of the bride and groom to be – for the couple to use in sending out wedding invitations or to send thank-you notes to guests afterward.

The same advisor also gives the client a framed sheet of those stamps featuring the happy couple. Once again, the response from clients is completely out of proportion to the cost. At the wedding of a client’s son, this advisor was introduced to other guests as “my longtime financial advisor, who came up with those fantastic stamps.”

– Make it personal

A second key for making an appreciation activity have an impact is for it to be personal. Inviting all your top clients to a great lunch at a top local restaurant may be appreciated. But if your clients know that you are doing this for a broad group, then, by definition, this undermines the sense that this is something that you are doing just for them.

Another advisor and her team keep an inventory of paperback books that relate to 20 hot buttons that may be important to individual clients at any time. They include the humorous How to Ruin Your Ex-husband’s Life One Day at a Time for newly divorced women, and a book celebrating the purchase of a young couple’s first house for clients whose children recently became homeowners.

Whenever one of the 20 topics comes up in a phone conversation with a client, the entire team signs the relevant book, which then is sent by mail to the client. The key is that the team keeps the books on hand in a filing cabinet. This advisor receives a tremendous response from clients.

Retirement is another opportunity to tap into a client’s personal situation. For clients who focus on fitness, some advisors send books such as Younger Next Year. For clients who are into cycling, an advisor sends a book on cycling for those over age 60. For clients who are keen travellers, you can give a gorgeous picture book from the Lonely Planet series or 1,000 Places to See Before you Die, for example.

Note that for an activity to feel personal, it doesn’t have to be limited to just one client. One advisor, who is a fan of good wine, hosts regular dinners at his home for three client couples. He has the meals catered and has a faculty member from the school of winemaking at a local community college introduce the wines. When he invites clients, the advisor tells them that he is inviting two other couples who love great wine as much as they do. By tapping into shared passions, you can invite multiple clients and still make the event feel personal.

– Make it unexpected

Another key to getting a return on appreciation activity is to surprise your clients. By definition, if something is expected, no matter how much clients enjoy it, after a while, it loses its impact. Last year, I wrote about how an advisor recognized a key birthday for his top client, a classical music fan, by arranging for him to be guest conductor of a local orchestra at its dress rehearsal and having a videographer record the event for posterity.

Another advisor hosts surprise lunches for his top clients to celebrate their 50th or 60th birthdays, inviting his client’s closest friends to participate. His clients invariably are delighted. And, while on more than one occasion, the guests he meets end up becoming clients, this advisor is careful to avoid anything that would suggest he is using the lunch to look for new clients – to the point that he consciously leaves his business cards at the office. What’s important is that clients are genuinely surprised by the recognition of their birthday.

One advisor calls every client over 65 to “be among the first to wish them happy birthday.” For clients under 65, he calls only on birthdays ending in “5” or “0.” This advisor’s view is that if he made this call every year it would lose impact. Along similar lines, another advisor sends clients a restaurant gift card for their 60th birthday; the accompanying note says that he wants to acknowledge a special birthday in a special fashion.

In the category of the exceptions that break the rule, I’ve spoken to other advi- sors who do something every year, to the point that it has become their signature activity. One advisor drops holiday wreathes off at the home of top clients in early December and another invites his top 20 clients for an annual birthday lunch. The reason these work is that they are still seen as something that no one else is likely to do. So, while at this point these activities are not unexpected from that advisor, his clients continue to reinforce the gratitude that this advisor feels.

– Make sure it is not self-serving

The final ingredient to getting a payoff from client gifts is to separate the gift from anything that comes close to financial matters because introducing financial issues into the mix lessens the impact. While a share of Walt Disney Co. to kick-start a college fund might make a great gift to celebrate the arrival of a client’s grandchild, that gift doesn’t have the emotional impact of a framed reproduction of the birth announcement. And although there’s nothing wrong with inviting clients who have provided referrals for a nice thank-you dinner, don’t confuse that “thank you” with true appreciation for the opportunity to work together.

As I’ve talked to advisors who are succeeding in having their gifts resonate with clients, the topic is never about the money these advisors spend. Rather, getting this client appreciation right requires a shift in mindset and a commitment to spending the time and effort to ensure that your gifts tap into emotional hot buttons and are personal, unexpected and devoid of any self-interest.

Follow that formula and you will get a payoff from your client-recognition activity, too.

Dan Richards is CEO of Clientinsights (www.clientinsights.ca) in Toronto. For more of Dan’s columns and informative videos, visit www.investmentexecutive.com.

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